Just Rome-ing around
We got into Rome late at night and in an Airbnb that we would only be in for one night. The terrace at this place was amazing. We saw a beautiful full red moon and then went to bed. The next day we followed a suggestion our host had given us for some tiramisu a little bit down the street at Pompi. I am not a very big tiramisu connoisseur, but it was the best I had ever had. This was also the day that Shawna and Chris arrived. Ben and I took the train to the airport to pick them up since we had a gap between when we checked out of our Airbnb and when the next one started.
We all opted to ride the Hop-on Hop-off bus which showed us so many of the things Rome has to offer. The first time we got off was at the Piazza del Campidoglio which was marvelous. We sat and stared at it for a bit of time. Later that evening we ventured back out to see the Pantheon and Travi water fountain. The water fountain was incredible.
We went to the Saint Peters Basilica, where we spent several hours. The sculptures and paintings were inspiring. So much work had gone into that building, so much that the people who started it never saw it completed. It took 150 years to complete. We have seen many pieces of architecture that have taken tens to hundreds of years to complete. It is inspiring how generations of people can work on things like this. As they say “Rome was not built in a day.”
We saw Castillo de Sant'Angelo. My favorite part was all of the underground construction. There were wells and gutter-like shoots that went through all of the floors of the building.
We went back to the Pantheon and got to go inside this time. We went to a Leonardo De Vinci museum which was full of remade inventions so we could touch them and see how they worked. We walked into the plaza that was behind it, Piazza del Popolo, where we just sat and people-watched. The buildings at the end of the plaza looked like a reflection of each other; they were almost symmetrical.
We finished our visit in Rome with the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palestine hill. The Colosseum was very impressive. You could feel the history there, perhaps it was the ghost of the fallen gladiators and the enslaved people that built it, but nonetheless, you could feel the history. Despite it being a hundred degrees, it was hard not to see everything the three areas had to offer. Brody and I even found a small lizard that he carried around on his phone till it got off in some cooler shade. Brody and I had also finally completed our Pokemon Go quest to evolve our Magikarps which we had worked on since the trip began.
Rome was spectacular and, unfortunately, concluded Mom and Brody's part of the trip. They returned home from Rome, while Ben and I joined Chris and Shawna for a very fast-paced next chapter of our journey that started with a few more cities in Italy.
Phone Photos
